From John Price 5 March 1868
38 Watergate St Chester
Mar 5 1868
My dear “Charlie”
I have been at Delamere,1 enjoying your new book hugely, & have a specimen to send you which I think you will enjoy, in a measure. As the plant is a double variety it will be interesting to watch, “if we be spared” whether the plants thus issuing from the folicles 2 will retain this peculiarity. Should these fail (not likely, in your hands, I forget all such cares) Fox3 has lots more, in his garden. I have watched this habit in Card. pratensis for many years, & published repeated “articles”;4 but I am very inept at getting my facts & notions before the right people, & so they “fall as the leaves do”.
I never was so mad on any subject (nor were you, even at the Orms Heads! “New plant”!!)5 as on the striped horses, of wh. I have seen splendid specimens, & have often thought of sending you a skin; but the beasts wd. not die and “I never cd. abide to give ’em pizen”. (O. P’s Remains)6 My experience of them wd make a story, in 3 stories; lower occupied by asses; middle by mules; upper by horses!
I saw a very fine animal yesterday, of wh. I enclose a very rough acct., to be returned some day.7 I mean to go again.
If I understand your Pangenesis, every part contributes its contingent atom, or atoms, towards the future organism.8 And what wd. constitute a part? Would the skin & mucous linings be a single part, or two? Wd. all the glands be taken as a unit? or as several, according to their functions?
Should the secretions be considered merely as products of the organs? or must there be a bile gemmule as well as a gall gemmule?9 & so on.
You do me good by setting me a thinking, anyhow. Last year, I overworked myself, gave way to despondency, & for months lost my interest in every thing. After trying most things, including Hydropathy, I set myself, one night, to reflect upon God’s *mercies, seriatim, from infancy; which broke the spell, helped me to lay hold again of that blessed hope, Christ, (“He is our hope”)10 & I have been cheerful & active ever since thank God.
I am not sure I understand your 2 last pages where you confess you are out of your latitude.11 I once wrote Savans, savans, pour quoi vanter? Savez-vous vous orienter? this was to Bob Whiston lost in the wood.—12
I expect to understand “free will & predestn.” (both equally revealed truths) hereafter, with the origin of evil, & other mysterious subjects.13 As for “species”, I believe God created a very large no., (of which about 8 pluralities seem so clearly stated in Genesis i); & I know that the question between some of them & the “varieties” arisen out of them is often a difficult one, worth fighting pro, or con.—
Best wishes to your circle | Dear Darwin | yours very truly | J. Price
If I did not congrate. you on your son’s success, I meant to do.14 What of the girls?15 See the report of Commission in Pall Mall They must prick up their ears & start, like Jerboas.16
*You remember one of these, about 1828, at Bodnant.17
Footnotes
Bibliography
Arnold, Ralph Crispian Marshall. 1961. The Whiston matter. The Reverend Robert Whiston versus the Dean and Chapter of Rochester. London: Rupert Hart-Davis.
Bartholomew, John. 1943. The survey gazetteer of the British Isles: including summary of 1931 census and reference atlas. 9th edition. Edinburgh: John Bartholomew & Son.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 27 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Crockford’s clerical directory: The clerical directory, a biographical and statistical book of reference for facts relating to the clergy and the church. Crockford’s clerical directory etc. London: John Crockford [and others]. 1858–1900.
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Price, John. 1863–4. Old Price’s remains; præhumous, or during life. 12 pts. London: Virtue, Brothers & Co.
Roach, John. 1986. A history of secondary education in England, 1800–1870. London: Longman.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Visiting W. D. Fox.
Sends specimen of Cardamine pratensis,
and an account of a striped horse.
Discusses Pangenesis.
Has returned to religion and has been reflecting on God’s mercies, one of which CD should remember from about 1828 at Bodnant.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5982
- From
- John Price
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Chester
- Source of text
- DAR 174: 74
- Physical description
- 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5982,” accessed on 24 January 2021, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-5982.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16